INTERNATIONAL: Brazilian senators leading a congressional probe met late on Tuesday to discuss a report prepared by opposition Senator Renan Calheiros regarding the pandemic policies of President Jair Bolsonaro. The nearly 1,200-page report has recommended 13 charges for Bolsonaro, including genocide against indigenous communities for actions that allegedly left them vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak. Ultimately, they agreed to remove the homicide and genocide accusations due to what one senator called “technical reasons”.
It is highly unlikely that the far-right politician will face trial on any such charges, which would have to be brought by Brazil's prosecutor general, whom Bolsonaro appointed. However, it shows growing political isolation of Bolsonaro a year before the next presidential election. His popularity has suffered from a weak economy, rising inflation and his handling of the pandemic.
More than 600,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, which has the world’s second-highest death toll after the United States.
